Journal ArticleDOI
Modernization: Theories and Facts
Adam Przeworski,Fernando Limongi +1 more
TLDR
This paper found that the level of economic development does not affect the probability of transitions to democracy but that affluence does make democratic regimes more stable, and that the relation between affluence and democratic stability is monotonic.Abstract:
What makes political regimes rise, endure, and fall? The main
question is whether the observed close relation between levels of
economic development and the incidence of democratic regimes is
due to democracies being more likely to emerge or only more likely
to survive in the more developed countries. We answer this
question using data concerning 135 countries that existed at any
time between 1950 and 1990. We find that the level of economic
development does not affect the probability of transitions to
democracy but that affluence does make democratic regimes more
stable. The relation between affluence and democratic stability is
monotonic, and the breakdown of democracies at middle levels of
development is a phenomenon peculiar to the Southern Cone of
Latin America. These patterns also appear to have been true of the
earlier period, but dictatorships are more likely to survive in wealthy
countries that became independent only after 1950. We conclude
that modernization need not generate democracy but democracies
survive in countries that are modern.read more
Citations
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Modernization, Cultural Change, and Democracy: The Human Development Sequence
TL;DR: The authors presented a model of social change that predicts how the value systems play a crucial role in the emergence and flourishing of democratic institutions, and that modernisation brings coherent cultural changes that are conducive to democratisation.
Book
Veto Players: How Political Institutions Work
TL;DR: In this paper, Veto players analysis of European Union Institutions is presented, focusing on the role of individual veto players and collective players in the analysis of the institutions of the European Union.
Journal ArticleDOI
Does Oil Hinder Democracy
TL;DR: The authors examined three aspects of this "oil impedes democracy" claim and found that oil exports are strongly associated with authoritarian rule, and that other types of mineral exports have a similar antidemocratic effect, while other commodity exports do not.
Journal ArticleDOI
What Do We Know About Democratization After Twenty Years
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors synthesize the results of the large number of studies of late-20th-century democratization published during the last 20 years and propose a theoretical model, rooted in characteristics of different types of authoritarian regimes, to explain many of the differences in democratization experience across cases in different regions.
Posted Content
Democracy with Adjectives: Conceptual Innovation in Comparative Research
David Collier,Steven Levitsky +1 more
TL;DR: The authors explored the strengths and weaknesses of alternative strategies of conceptual innovation that have emerged: descending and climbing Sartori's ladder of generality, generating diminished" subtypes of democracy, precising the definition of democracy by adding defining attributes, and shifting the overarching concept with which democracy is associated.
References
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The Third Wave: Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century
TL;DR: The third wave of democratization in the late 1970s and early 1990s as mentioned in this paper is the most important political trend in the last half of the 20th century, according to the authors.
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Political Order in Changing Societies
TL;DR: This now-classic examination of the development of viable political institutions in emerging nations is a major and enduring contribution to modern political analysis as mentioned in this paper, and its Foreword, Francis Fukuyama assesses Huntington's achievement, examining the context of the original publication as well as its lasting importance.
Journal ArticleDOI
Political Order in Changing Societies.
Book
Some Social Requisites of Democracy: Economic Development and Political Legitimacy
TL;DR: The conditions associated with the existence and stability of democratic society have been a leading concern of political philosophy as discussed by the authors, and the problem is attacked from a sociological and behavioral standpoint, by presenting a number of hypotheses concerning some social requisites for democracy, and by discussing some of the data available to test these hypotheses.
Book
Democracy and the Market: Political and Economic Reforms in Eastern Europe and Latin America
TL;DR: The authors analyzes recent transitions to democracy and market-oriented economic reforms in Eastern Europe and Latin America, drawing in a quite distinctive way on models derived from political philosophy, economics, and game theory.